Jukka Raitala

[Bring back Bryan wade!!]

​

LB playing in the Dutch league for Heerenveen.

Sami interested? Anyone heard this?

 

[Rod Marsh]

Heard nothing. Tell me more please.

 

[Bladders]

I'd like to think that Sami's knowledge of players stretches further than the Finnish national team, seams thats all we're linked with these days.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Can I just ask where you heard this from?

 

[Bring back Bryan wade!!]

Can I just ask where you heard this from?

A friend who occasionally is privy to information. May be off the Mark but has been accurate before (Ulloa)

 

[severnside gull]

Can I just ask where you heard this from?

BBBW is the very best there is at finding obscure players with excellant credentials who we might sign... ...... ...... but don't.

More power to his elbow...... keeps himself busy and post intriguing names improving our knowledge of world football

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Maybe Sami could bring back Bryan Wade?

 

[willyfantastic]

are we actually linked to these people? - it seems that actually posters have a look through the finnish national team, make a decision on who they think could be attainable in their eyes, and then say we are linked

boring.

 

[Bring back Bryan wade!!]

BBBW is the very best there is at finding obscure players with excellant credentials who we might sign... ...... ...... but don't.

More power to his elbow...... keeps himself busy and post intriguing names improving our knowledge of world football

Not at all Severnside, to be honest I've never heard of the fella myself. Just passing on what I have been told. (As I did with regards to Ulloa 9 months before we signed him)

 

[Frutos]

Raitala is a decent player - could do a job, as the saying goes.

 

[Wellesley]

Does it come with poppadoms?

 

[Hyperion]

Already sporting our new kit too.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Raitala is a decent player - could do a job, as the saying goes.

How do you know? Out of interest.

 

[litmanen]

As a guy from Finland i tell you that you probably would not be satisfied with him.

He used to be somewhat good/had some potential, but he only played a game or two in Heerenveen last season. He was injured a few months, but the rest of the time coach van Basten was not satisfied with him and he had to play in Heerenveens reserve team a long time. In the national team he played in a tournament held in Lithuania last May, and people were not that happy with his performance that time either. In defending he is...adequate, and when it comes to support the attacking game, he is not even that, im afraid.

If you wan't a finnish wingback, the best ones are Kari Arkivuo and Jere Uronen. They are good in defending, and also very technical players. Especially Arkivuo has been praised a lot in Sweden. It's amazing that now when he is 31 years old he is better than ever before. But i don't think his swedish team will let him move anywhere.

 

[Frutos]

How do you know? Out of interest.

I follow quite a lot of football around Europe, nothing more than that.

 

[Bring back Bryan wade!!]

As a guy from Finland i tell you that you probably would not be satisfied with him.

He used to be somewhat good/had some potential, but he only played a game or two in Heerenveen last season. He was injured a few months, but the rest of the time coach van Basten was not satisfied with him and he had to play in Heerenveens reserve team a long time. In the national team he played in a tournament held in Lithuania last May, and people were not that happy with his performance that time either. In defending he is...adequate, and when it comes to support the attacking game, he is not even that, im afraid.

If you wan't a finnish wingback, the best ones are Kari Arkivuo and Jere Uronen. They are good in defending, and also very technical players. Especially Arkivuo has been praised a lot in Sweden. It's amazing that now when he is 31 years old he is better than ever before. But i don't think his swedish team will let him move anywhere.

You clearly have an exceptional knowledge of Finland players. Who in your opinion would be the top 5 realistic players that Sami should try and sign and why? Remember we are unlikely to pay more than £1m transfer fee and 10-15k a week wages.

 

[Bring back Bryan wade!!]

How do you know? Out of interest.

He has an exceptional knowledge of European football. (And that's coming from someone who has a fairly decent knowledge himself)

 

[litmanen]

Well of course i know the finish players well, when i watch all the national team games. On the finnish football forum there has been a lot of speculation about which finnish players could suit for Brighton. As mentioned before, Niki Mäenpää could be a suitable goalkeeper, and he would be free too. Finland has no better keepers really. Our second national team keeper Luklas Hradecky is too unreliable already, he has made so many terrible mistakes during the years that i have lost confidence in him totally.

When it comes to center backs, our number one man Niklas Moisander is probably too expensive, and so is number two man Juhani Ojala, since he currently plays in the Russian League, but our number three center back Tero Mäntylä might be just perfect. Mäntylä did take part in his bulgarian team Ludogorets recent training game, i think Ludogorets would want to sell him, and i know that Tero himself wants to leave. It's difficult to know how much Ludogorets would want of him, but one million could be close. Finland does not have many good wingbacks, Arkivuo and Uronen both have contracts in Sweden and i think they would be a bit too expensive. They would cost over a million pounds both, im sure.

When you look at finnish national team midfielders, Roman Eremenko and Perparim Hetemaj are the only ones who are really "too good" for Championship level, and many others are too bad to play even there, but we have a few ones (Sakari Mattila, Alexander Ring, Tim Sparv) who i don't think are quite Premier League quality, but Championship might be fine, but they all would probably cost around a million pounds. Mattila is an attacking midfielder, he can give good freekicks and he as good shot. Ring is very aggressive and hard working and can play both defending and attacking midfielder. Sparv is a pretty solid defending midfielder, he can play as center back too.

When you look at attackers, we basically have 4 decent ones. Teemu Pukki plays for Celtic and he is our number one striker. He scored 8 goals for Celtic last season in about 30 games and that might not seem much, but you have to remember that he was in the starting eleven only in a few games, since Celtic had so many strikers.. Joel Pohjanpalo plays in the german "Championship" and he didn't score that many goals last season, but he was in starting eleven a lot and he is still a very young lad (born 94) so i think he will still develop a lot, he has potential. And then we have too giant strikers, Eero Markkanen and Berat Sadik. Sadik (born in Macedonia) plays in the Swiss top league, and he has scored quite many goals, but to be fair, he has had chances to score a lot more too. Eero Markkanen is a bit more skillful than Sadik and a lot younger too, and he plays in Sweden. Basically these 4 are the only finnish strikers who could be good enough for Brighton, but Pukki would probably cost several million pounds. The other three might be close to the one million pound fee, but who knows for sure.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

He has an exceptional knowledge of European football. (And that's coming from someone who has a fairly decent knowledge himself)

I'm just surprised that someone can decide a player is worth looking at when they play in a relatively obscure league. How Often are Herenveen on TV? He appears to have only made 22 appearances in the last two years.

 

[Bring back Bryan wade!!]

Well of course i know the finish players well, when i watch all the national team games. On the finnish football forum there has been a lot of speculation about which finnish players could suit for Brighton. As mentioned before, Niki Mäenpää could be a suitable goalkeeper, and he would be free too. Finland has no better keepers really. Our second national team keeper Luklas Hradecky is too unreliable already, he has made so many terrible mistakes during the years that i have lost confidence in him totally.

When it comes to center backs, our number one man Niklas Moisander is probably too expensive, and so is number two man Juhani Ojala, since he currently plays in the Russian League, but our number three center back Tero Mäntylä might be just perfect. Mäntylä did take part in his bulgarian team Ludogorets recent training game, i think Ludogorets would want to sell him, and i know that Tero himself wants to leave. It's difficult to know how much Ludogorets would want of him, but one million could be close. Finland does not have many good wingbacks, Arkivuo and Uronen both have contracts in Sweden and i think they would be a bit too expensive. They would cost over a million pounds both, im sure.

When you look at finnish national team midfielders, Roman Eremenko and Perparim Hetemaj are the only ones who are really "too good" for Championship level, and many others are too bad to play even there, but we have a few ones (Sakari Mattila, Alexander Ring, Tim Sparv) who i don't think are quite Premier League quality, but Championship might be fine, but they all would probably cost around a million pounds.

When you look at attackers, we basically have 4 decent ones. Teemu Pukki plays for Celtic and he is definetely our number one striker. He scored 8 goals for Celtic last season in about 30 games, and that is OK when you remember that he was in the starting eleven only in a few games. Joel Pohjanpalo plays in the german "Championship" and he didn't score that many goals last season, but he was in starting eleven a lot and he is still a very young lad (born 94) so i think he will still develop a lot, he has potential. And then we have too giant strikers, Eero Markkanen and Berat Sadik. Sadik (born in Macedonia) plays in the Swiss top league, and he has scored quite many goals, but to be fair, he has had chances to score a lot more too. Eero Markkanen is a bit more skillful than Sadik and a lot younger too, and he plays in Sweden. Basically these 4 are the only finnish strikers who could be good enough for Brighton, but Pukki would probably cost several million pounds. The other three might be close to the one million pound fee, but who knows for sure.
,

Excellent and informative summary, thank you.

I understand Alexander Ring plays for Kaiserslautern. Could definitely be someone Sami may look at.